Fiction Book Review for ‘Forest of Silence’ by Emily Rodda reviewed by Heather Adams
About the Book:
The evil Shadow Lord is plotting to invade the land of Deltora and enslave its people. All that stands against him is the magic Belt of Deltora with its seven stones of great and mysterious power. When the stones are stolen and hidden in dark, terrible places throughout the kingdom, the Shadow Lord triumphs and Deltora is lost.
In secrecy, with only a hand-drawn map to guide them, two unlikely companions set out on a dangerous quest. Determined to find the lost stones and rid their land of the Shadow Lord, they struggle toward their first goal-the sinister Forest of Silence. Can they survive.
My Review:
Three Stars
The Forest of Silence is a creative inspiring fantasy novel for children. This is the introduction into the world of Deltora found in Rodda’s series Deltora Quest. This text brings to life an intriguing set of characters, however, the pacing of the book does not fit the scale of the world portrayed.
Emily Rodda brings to life this phenomenal fantasy world in her book series. She has created these creatures, people and places that the reader can picture so vividly. The imagination of this author is fantastic because she has created a fictional world that has its own history, laws, creatures and magic. However, this world is not provided enough progression to entirely divulge its secrets to its reader.
Though Emily Rodda has created a phenomenal story, the plot itself seemed to go very fast paced. Now I know as a children’s book it is meant to be rather short. However, it is my belief that this world that she has created could have made for a great Young Adult novel. Most of the plot seems to only be a summery of the full picture of the plot and I personally would have loved to have more time to get to know characters and experience this world.
The plot itself dives right into the story, but not in a way that is an abrupt shock, with the death of the King in the first sentences. From there as the plot progresses I had a strong desire for more detail of what the environment looked like. Rodda has a sense of detail however, I wanted to more about each place, I felt like I was receiving pictures that than video. I got to just see a snap shot of this world but not as clearly as how other authors have presented theirs.
The concept of the story was quite an intriguing one and the way that Rodda ends her chapters is great. Each time I ended a chapter I just plowed into the next one so that I could find out what happened next. Rodda’s writing style kept me interested every step of the way and left me hungry for the next book, but I still feel like this book and perhaps even the series could have been so much more if it had been written as a Young Adult novel rather then a children’s novel.
About the Author:
Emily Rodda grew up with her two younger brothers on Sydney’s North Shore and graduated from the University of Sydney in 1973 with an MA in English Lit. Always an avid reader she moved naturally into a career in publishing, first as a book editor and finally as a publisher at Angus & Robertson. She has written or co-authored well over fifty books for children and as Jennifer Rowe (her real name) she writes popular mystery novels for adults. She is a prestigious award winning author who has won the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year award several times and in 1995 Emily won the prestigious Dromkeen Medal. For more information visit http://www.emilyrodda.com/about/.
About the Book:
The evil Shadow Lord is plotting to invade the land of Deltora and enslave its people. All that stands against him is the magic Belt of Deltora with its seven stones of great and mysterious power. When the stones are stolen and hidden in dark, terrible places throughout the kingdom, the Shadow Lord triumphs and Deltora is lost.
In secrecy, with only a hand-drawn map to guide them, two unlikely companions set out on a dangerous quest. Determined to find the lost stones and rid their land of the Shadow Lord, they struggle toward their first goal-the sinister Forest of Silence. Can they survive.
My Review:
Three Stars
The Forest of Silence is a creative inspiring fantasy novel for children. This is the introduction into the world of Deltora found in Rodda’s series Deltora Quest. This text brings to life an intriguing set of characters, however, the pacing of the book does not fit the scale of the world portrayed.
Emily Rodda brings to life this phenomenal fantasy world in her book series. She has created these creatures, people and places that the reader can picture so vividly. The imagination of this author is fantastic because she has created a fictional world that has its own history, laws, creatures and magic. However, this world is not provided enough progression to entirely divulge its secrets to its reader.
Though Emily Rodda has created a phenomenal story, the plot itself seemed to go very fast paced. Now I know as a children’s book it is meant to be rather short. However, it is my belief that this world that she has created could have made for a great Young Adult novel. Most of the plot seems to only be a summery of the full picture of the plot and I personally would have loved to have more time to get to know characters and experience this world.
The plot itself dives right into the story, but not in a way that is an abrupt shock, with the death of the King in the first sentences. From there as the plot progresses I had a strong desire for more detail of what the environment looked like. Rodda has a sense of detail however, I wanted to more about each place, I felt like I was receiving pictures that than video. I got to just see a snap shot of this world but not as clearly as how other authors have presented theirs.
The concept of the story was quite an intriguing one and the way that Rodda ends her chapters is great. Each time I ended a chapter I just plowed into the next one so that I could find out what happened next. Rodda’s writing style kept me interested every step of the way and left me hungry for the next book, but I still feel like this book and perhaps even the series could have been so much more if it had been written as a Young Adult novel rather then a children’s novel.
About the Author:
Emily Rodda grew up with her two younger brothers on Sydney’s North Shore and graduated from the University of Sydney in 1973 with an MA in English Lit. Always an avid reader she moved naturally into a career in publishing, first as a book editor and finally as a publisher at Angus & Robertson. She has written or co-authored well over fifty books for children and as Jennifer Rowe (her real name) she writes popular mystery novels for adults. She is a prestigious award winning author who has won the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year award several times and in 1995 Emily won the prestigious Dromkeen Medal. For more information visit http://www.emilyrodda.com/about/.
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